Profile: Alberta

Written By Brandon Douglas

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The Canadian Province of Canada. Photo courtesy of MapGrid - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, WikiMedia Commons.

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NAME

This Canadian province gets its name from the fourth daughter (Princess Louise Caroline Alberta) of British monarch Queen Victoria, the woman who officially granted independence to Canada from the United Kingdom. If you are an inhabitant of this province, then you are known by Canadians as an Albertan.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Alberta, Canada: Wild Rose Country–the provincial slogan found on all Albertan license plates. Every Canadian province has a slogan, and Alberta’s just happens to reference its official flower, the wild rose.

Alberta is located in the region of Western Canada. It is the fourth-largest province of the country, boasting a size of 661,848 km² (almost three times the size of the United Kingdom). Its neighbours include three Canadian regions (British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan) and one American state (Montana). As of 2021, its population is 4,262,635, approximately 75% of which is spread between two cities: Edmonton and Calgary.

Flag of Alberta. Photo courtesy of Kooma (original) - EMBLEMS OF ALBERTA ACT, Public Domain, WikiMedia Commons.

NATURE

Alberta’s nature is vast in both size and diversity. In the north of the province, the land consists of mostly boreal forest, while there is a mountainous region in the southwest, thickly covered by coniferous forest. To the east, prairie characterizes the earth, while in the southeast there are desert canyons and eroded landforms that make up the Alberta badlands.

PLANTS

In addition to the variety of landscapes that the province hosts is a diverse range of plant species. Among them are the native wild rose, the prairie crocus, the sunflower, sage, deciduous trees (e.g. paper birch, willows, cottonwood), deciduous conifer trees (e.g. the ever-sought-after larch), and coniferous trees (e.g. black spruce, jack pine).

WILDLIFE

With such diversity of terrain, it is with no wonder that there is just as much diversity in Albertan wildlife. Some common animals that can be seen both inside and outside of cities include: black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, lynxes, foxes, martens, bison, moose, caribou, elk, pronghorns, deer, bald eagles, hawks, great horned owls, turkey vultures, Canada geese, cottontail rabbits, prairie rattlesnakes, skunks, and squirrels.

Similarly to British Columbia, it is important to be aware of your surroundings, especially at night when in large natural environments like parks, fields, hiking trails, forests, and when in the country. The provincial government has a list of solutions for staying safe among the region’s wildlife, which can be read here.

CLIMATE

Due to Alberta’s vast land mass, its temperatures vary from region to region. Depending on the area, winter averages anywhere between -24 C to 0 C (with extreme reaches as low as -54 C), while summer sees temperatures ranging on average from +21 C to +28 C (with extremes as high as +40 C). This is broken up among various climates: subarctic in the north, humid continental in the central south, and semi-arid in the south.

One particular element that makes Alberta’s climate unique among other Canadian regions is that of chinooks.

NATURAL DISASTERS

Depending on region, Alberta witnesses a variety of natural disasters every year: avalanches, rock slides, landslides, tornadoes, thunderstorms, flooding, windstorms, hailstorms, snowstorms, whiteouts, and extreme fog.

CITY LIVING

As previously mentioned, around 75% of the Albertan population is divided between two rival cities: Edmonton and Calgary.

Edmonton is the capital city of the province. It is the farthest northerly Canadian city with over 1 million inhabitants. One of its nicknames is Festival City, as it hosts among the most city-wide festivals in Canada every year, regardless of weather (e.g. the Edmonton Fringe Festival, A Taste of Edmonton, the Works Art & Design Festival, etc.). One would be remiss not to mention that this is also where the largest mall of North America is located: the West Edmonton Mall; and that this is the home to the Edmonton Oilers, a famous hockey team that is named after the province’s and city’s most prominent resource (oil).

Photos of Edmonton, Alberta courtesy of By Allice Hunter via WikiMedia Commons - File:Edmonton Skyline from 106 Street Lookout 2019.jpgFile:Alberta Legislature Building at night.jpgFile:Edmonton - Art Gallery of Alberta (15015846212).jpgFile:Fort Edmonton Park (36894696671).jpgFile:Edmonton_conservatory.jpgFile:Edmonton Law Courts 10.jpgFile:Pirate ship in the West Edmonton Mall.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0

Calgary, on the other hand, is nicknamed Cow Town for its cowboy culture linked to both the surrounding farming communities and the popularity of country music in the region. Another reason for this nickname is the fact that Calgary hosts the largest rodeo event in the world called, the Calgary Stampede. It is also the largest city of Alberta at 1,481,806 residents (as of 2021), it serves as the music capital of the province, and it is widely considered one of the major business hubs of Western Canada.

Other notable, albeit smaller, cities in Alberta include: Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Lloydminster, and Red Deer, among others.

Photo of Calgary, Alberta skyline courtesy of AceYYC - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, WikiMedia Commons.

Photo of downtown Calgary, Alberta courtesy of CC BY 2.5, WikiMedia Commons.

TOURISM

In addition to the festivals, hockey games and rodeos, a large portion of Alberta’s tourism is based on its exquisite nature. In fact, its nature is so beautiful (and historical) that it has received international acclaim not only from tourists but institutions like UNESCO, which has declared Alberta the home of six World Heritage sites: 1) the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, which consist of seven national and provincial parks of Canada, including the well-known beauty that is Banff; 2) Dinosaur Provincial Park, which is one of the richest places of dinosaur fossils in the world; 3) Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, two breathtaking landscapes shaped by glaciers between Canada and the United States, which were joined in a historical act of peace and nature preservation in the early 20th century; 4) Wood Buffalo National Park, the second-largest national park in the world, larger than the size of Switzerland, which protects the habitat of the once-nearly-endangered wild wood buffalo; 5) Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park (AKA Áísínaiʼpi National Historic Site of Canada), both a prairie nature reserve and historical/cultural protection site for the wood carvings and paintings produced by the ancient ancestors of a diversity of First Nations peoples; and 6) Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a museum and nature reserve of a millennia-old site for a common practice of the Blackfoot Nation’s predecessors.

ECONOMY

Regarding Alberta’s economical impact on the world at large, the Canadian province in 2013 became one of of the strongest economies in the world (according to its GDP per capita), beating the likes of the United States of America, Switzerland and Norway. Following this trend, the province continues to be one of the most stable economies of Canada, coming in second to Ontario (see blog post, “Profile: Ontario,” coming soon). All of this while maintaining among the lowest tax rates in the entire country–just 5% (as of 2024).

What is to thank for this strength? Well, that would be due in part to the region’s rich resources and business acumen in petroleum, mining, cattle ranching (beef production, dairy farming, etc.), forestry, tourism, agriculture (grain, canola, etc.), and beekeeping.

As for the most in-demand professions (as of 2024), these would include nurses, truck drivers, retail sales managers, mechanics, heavy equipment operators, software developers, family doctors and medical specialists, accountants, construction workers, and cooks.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Alberta’s official language is English. It is home to over 45 First Nations peoples (as of 2024), featuring countless Indigenous languages (e.g. Blackfoot, Cree, Dene, etc.), as well as the Franco-Albertan community, which partially comprises the 6.8% of the region’s Francophone population. Approximately 0.4% of the population is bilingual in both English and French (as of 2021). Other populous languages of the province include (in order of speakers): Tagalog, Punjabi, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, and German.

Around 23% of Alberta’s population is made up of immigrants (not including holders of citizenship, first generation Canadians, etc.), with particularly high percentages of nationals from the Philippines, India, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, the United States, Vietnam, Nigeria, and Mexico. To give a clearer image of this diversity, almost 20% of the entire Albertan population is of Filipino descent.

EDUCATION

Approximately 84.5% (as of 2021) of Alberta’s residents (above the age of 15) have graduated with a post-secondary education qualification (CEGEP/college/university certificate, diploma or degree). This compares to the recorded national average of 83.8% in 2021.

Well known educational institutions of the region include: the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan University, Athabasca University (the first online university in Canada, established years before the shift to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Lethbridge College, Red Deer Polytechnic, Medicine Hat College, CDI College of Business, Technology and Healthcare, among others.

FOOD

Just like in British Columbia, it is not uncommon to eat dishes from around the world every day in Alberta. However, due to the province’s geography and demographics, there are some foods that are considered more typical in Alberta than in B.C. A selection of these foods includes:

  • Bison

    • a lean red meat, often fashioned into burgers or meatballs

  • Elk

    • a gamey meat, common to the mountain regions of the province

  • Ginger Beef

    • a Chinese-Calgarian fusion of deep-fried strips of beef covered in a ginger glaze, commonly found in restaurants and grocery stores across the nation

  • Puffed Wheat Squares

    • a chocolatey dessert made of puffed wheat grains, which was invented in Alberta but is widely consumed throughout Canada

  • Rose Hip Tea

    • Wild Rose hips (the fruit found on Wild Rose bushes), among other natural ingredients, steeped in hot water until fragrant

  • Caesar

    • also widely consumed across Canada, despite it being an Albertan creation, this is an alcoholic beverage made of vodka, tomato juice, clam juice, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, often served with a spiced glass rim and a submerged stalk of celery, and/or dill pickle, which are sometimes additionally accompanied by a green olive and/or lime wedge

Have you ever been to Alberta? What did you notice while visiting there? What surprises you most about this Canadian province? Let me know in the comments below.

To learn about other Canadian regions, take a look at our blog posts called, “Profile: British Columbia” and “Profile: Saskatchewan,” coming soon.

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Brandon Douglas
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